So sick!

We recently all had such a horrible flu. Landon (below) was the first to get it and quickly passed it to Ezra. Between the two of them they threw up 40 + times. At the same time, Aaron got sick so guess who got to clean it all up, aren't I lucky! When they started feeling a little better, Scotland got it and threw up quite a few times herself. After it seemed that everyone was over it, Gabe and I got it. I felt AWFUL! Landon's face shows how we all were feeling. I feel so bad when the little ones get sick and don't know what to do about it. I am so happy to say that we are all doing well now and hopefully we are done with the flu this year!!

Exploding Turkey

My Dad likes to deep fry up to 4 turkeys on Thanksgiving. Here is exactly what happens when you have a bit too much oil, as he did for the first of this years batch. Notice his silly little fire dace!

Thanksgiving Turkeys!

Oh how I LOVE Thanksgiving! i love the food, I love the family, I love the food, I love the smells, I love the relaxed feel to it as we all stuff our faces, I love that no one is on a diet on Thanksgiving! I know I mentioned a bunch of food stuff that I love; but, honestly, my favorite part really is the family. I love having family visit, I love talking with everyone, sharing stories, laughing, watching TV, cooking, and just feeling the incredible love we all have for one another, there is nothing in the whole world like it!

My Grandma and Grandpa Holmes had Thanksgiving with my family this year and Grandma was SO good with all the kids (she better be with all the practice she had with her kids). She held Scotland, she read books to the boys, she listened to the crazy stuff Gabe had to say. It was so fun to have them here.
We also had Bethy and Hyrum's family over! They live in VA which is so sad for me; Bethy is the sibling that I have always felt the closest to. I miss them so much when they are away but I has been such an incredible joy to have them here for this holiday.

I truly hope you all had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving as I did!

This is for Michelle

Ok... First, to those who don't know Michelle. She is a completely awesome person that my magnificent cousin married (they are SO cute together)! She has a blog and on it she listed 5 little known facts about her and asked that I did the same. While I hate talking about myself (not one of the little known facts), I think this will be somewhat fun to see if people actually DO know some of this stuff or not. So... Here ya go!

1) Unlike Michelle, I LOVE speaking in public!! I don't know if it the rush of adrenalin, or what, but I love it! I wish that I was asked to speak more often but with all the kids I have, I think the bishop thinks that it would be too much for me.

2) I like "Desperate Housewives." I know... I know... Think of me what you will, but I like it. I especially like wrapping up in a blanket when ALL the kids are asleep, and I watch it on my computer.

3) I had my tongue pierced (twice) and I miss it. If the prophet had not come right out and said that we should not have our tongues pierced, I would still have it.

4) I love to dream. I love to be in another world and just pretend in general.

5) Since this is the last thing, it had better be good. Hmm... I really, really wish that I could play the piano extremely well. I don't want to be OK at the piano, or somewhat good, I want to be AMAZING!!! I think that is what is holding me up from taking lessons, I don't want that bit of time when i am decent or Ok, etc. I just want to automatically be marvelous!

So there ya have it. That's me! Hope I didn't disappoint anyone or anything.

Ezra learns about fall

A couple days ago, I went to Costco with my mom. While there, Ezra decided to take a dive out of the cart, onto the cement floor. he was very lucky, he really wasn't hurt very badly. We rushed him to my dad's office to get x-rays and all seemed OK. He mostly just got a big ol' bruise on his forehead and an eye that looks like he got in a fight.

You can kind of see his eye in this picture, it really doesn't look bad, I think it looks a bit worse in real life, but I'm his mom and I notice how different it looks now.

There is his little head bruise. My little damaged boy. I think that the blue hair distracts anyone from his forehead and eye.

Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!! We had such a fun day! As you can tell my kids were so adorable as the characters from "The Cat in the Hat." The twins were perfect little things; Ezra as Thing 1 and Landon as Thing 2, Gabe was a magnificent Cat in the Hat, and Scotland (sorry, no pictures of her) was so cute as Sally (the little girl in the book). We went trick-or-treating around the harbor, ate a wonderful dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then went and saw Grandma Bobbi, Grandpa Jerry, Uncle Ben, and Uncle Andy and Aunt Jenny. They were so spoiled!!!

The kids were SO cute that at least 3 perfect strangers asked if they could take their picture. What can I say? I have got some good looking kids!

Before we did all the traditional Halloween stuff we got to go to Maris Farms. Most of you probably have no idea what that is but I am here to tell you all about it. It is a HUGE farm complete with a corn maze, farm animals, a "cow train," a climbing wall shaped as a giant carton of milk, big dogs, little plastic tractors to race, lots of mud, a ginormous pumpkin patch, and so much fun! Below are some of our pictures from that.

Racing the tractors

Me and Scotland trying to keep warm


That; believe it or not, is all corn. Dry corn of course, but it was like a giant sand box but with corn. Landon was not so sure about it.


Gabe on the "cow train" being pulled by a big, huge tractor.

I've got the blues!

For Halloween this year, the twins are going to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 so naturally I wanted to dye their hair blue. I was a little nervous that the blue would not take very well. Obviously I had nothing to worry about! Even in blue hair, they are SO cute!

Okay, Okay!

Okay guys, here is a picture of Gabe in his lederhosen. It is not an excellent picture but I will post more later. My dad has all the good ones and I am waiting for him to e-mail them to me. Until then you will have to deal with the one I took with my phone.

HE SURE IS A DOLL!!!

For those of you who do not know already, Gabe was in a Ballet recital and did a dance to one of the songs from "The Sound of Music." He sure loves the stage and LOVES to show off! Here he is in his authentic German lederhosen that I got on ebay for $30. What a deal!!

Firtst try at veggies! EWWW!!

Scotland got her first taste of vegetables and was not so pleased with how they tasted (obviously). She did; however, enjoy the bath immediately following. What a cute girl!! Even when her face is covered in nastiness she is still beautiful to me!!

"General Conscience"

For all those who saw it, and I guess thse who didn't, general conference was great. I think I only saw 2 talks but they were very good. My personal favorite was the one by Elder Octaviano Tenorio. He spoke in the Sunday afternoon session kind of about how our family can be together forever. I didn't catch all of his talk so I am not sure if that was his true point but that is what I did get. He told a story of his wife having their first child in another part of Mexico then where he was. He was so happy about his new little girl and told everyone at work about it. The ext day he brought chocolates to share with everyone at work in celebration of his daughter's arrival to this earth. As he was passing them out he got a call from his father-in-law saying that his little girl had died. Octaviano asked to talk to his wife and they talked about how great it was that they were sealed to this little girl. After talking to his wife, he continued passing out chocolates. One person asked how he could do this after hearing such horrible news. Octaviano shared his testimony of eternal families with this person and that person truly saw his faith.

What a hard thing to loose a child but to continue to be upbeat and possative is something that I do not think I could ever do, even with the knowledge that I have in my life.

I am so greatful for my family, they teach me more each day and are so completely precious to me.

Here are a couple of pictures (provided by parts of my family) from General Conference

This is Gabe's picture of Camilla (Cmle). He is such the artist!!

This is my nephew Max. What a stud!! He LOVED getting his pictue taken!

I hope that those of you who could, enjoyed conference and got a little spiritual uplift. We are so lucky to have this modern day guidence in our lives. I know that I do not use it as much as I should but I am greatful for it!

EXPLOSION!!

At about 3 p.m. I was sitting on my couch while Ezra and Gabe played and Landon and Scotland slept. I heard a huge BANG which made our entire house shake, literally! I looked up, out the window and half the sky was covered in flames. We later found out that a propane tank had exploded less than 1 mile away from our house. According to Mapquest the address was 0.74 miles away from us. The fire ball was about 500 feet in the air and 1000 feet wide. It burned for many hours. It was crazy!! They had to shut down Highway 16, which is a fairly busy highway around here and they redirected traffic to go through our neighborhood.

Aparently the propane tank had exploded while it was being refueled. They are not sure how, but there ya have it. As of right now many have been hospitalized and one man is reported missing. The picture to the right was taken by a person half way across town. I am not sure where the picture to the left was taken from, but you get the idea. After things like this you get so greatful that your husband came home from work. I just feel so bad for the man who is missing's wife and family. I know we will keep them in our prayers.

MORE PICTURES

taken from Highway 16

About 3 hours after the explosion

New Swing Set!!!!

We got a new swing set!! Well... It isn't exactly new but new to us. I got it on Craigslist for free!! We had to drive out to Redmond to get it but it was well worth it! It is a nice wooden one with 2 regular swings, 1 baby swing, those ring things, a fort with a slide, a rope ladder and a knotted rope for climbing. It really is pretty cool. Here are a few pictures of the twins playing outside today.

Ezra hangin' out. Notice his cool haircut!

Landon chillin'. Notice his cute haircut! You would think I was ripping his arms off the way he screamed when I did it!

Playin' in the drive way. What fun!

Aaron

Yes, I know, I say nothing about Aaron in my title but he is one of my kids. Luckily he admits it too. I just didn't want anyone to think i was leaving him out, he is very important to me!